hey guys
we are getting rid of an old Compaq Alpha 4100 running tru64 unix. Before getting rid of it we wanted to do some sort of formatting so that the data would be erased. What do you recommend?
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hey guys
we are getting rid of an old Compaq Alpha 4100 running tru64 unix. Before getting rid of it we wanted to do some sort of formatting so that the data would be erased. What do you recommend?
there are many good one.
here is one for example..
http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
Also remember that it is more or less impossible to completely, irreversibly delete everything off of your hard drive. If you had any confidential business-critical files stored on that hard drive, that should be a concern. Our policy here is that we destroy all hard drives when we give away computers.
Does this tool work with UNIX.
Q: "Which operating systems does Eraser support?"
A: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP (all versions, with or without service packs). Eraser has not been tested on other platforms.
Perhaps this might be helpful: Active@Kill Disk
------best way to format a box you will not use any more-----
if the data is really valuable... you could always take a hammer to the harddrive.... then leave it in a magnitized box..... there will still be fragments of data on the disk but i dout that anybody will want to try to put it back together... unless the FBI's forensics team is up for he challenge
just a thought
One that I've found works well is Iolo's DriveScrubber
http://www.iolo.com/ds/story.cfm?story=25
They offer a free trial download that you can use to make a bootable wipe floppy diskette with.
It also has DoD 5220.22 compliant wiping capabilities (will overwrite disk w/random binary 7 or greater times)
I've found it can be slow going on older drives: wipe speed depends on speed of HDD, not size of HDD
/EDIT: I forgot to mention it runs on most OSs:
Quote:
Any drive, any format, any file system, any time!
DriveScrubber itself merely requires an X86 compatible processor to run (that's anything that can run a DOS operating system, from 286's on). A Windows-based bootable diskette builder (an evaluation of which is available for download) is used to easily create a floppy disk which contains its own proprietary operating system that can be run on any X86 machine by simply inserting the specially created floppy and rebooting the machine to start DriveScrubber. Once DriveScrubber is started, any floppy or hard disk can be wiped, including:
IDE, EIDE, SCSI, or floppy drives
FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Mac, Linux, Unix, and Sun, file formats
Any operating system:
Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, etc...
Any version of DOS
Any version of Mac OS
Any version of Linux or Unix
Anything else!
the last harddisk i destoryed had some stuff i did want others getting (crypto keys, finacial stuff, as well as some technical stuff) so I decided to destroy it with a hammer, was actually really good fun smashing all the disks up, I drilled them out as well as i felt that if material wasnt there then it would be allot harder to recover, (the disk was knakered so i decided to experiment i would usually keep them otherwise)
there wasnt allot of need for this in fairness probably just my destructive nature but i enjoyed myself....
you could kill it by putting it in a microwave for a bit, but i doubt your mum will be to impressed....
it sounds very much like you wish to sell the box so total destruction isnt an option, so i suggest some of the software methods suggested above.
I think i remember ninil saying that it was common practice in military/ goverment computers to overwrite the disk 7 times with random 1 and 0, you could easily create a C program to do this.
i2c
It depends on how sensitive the information on the machine was. In any case I would probably reinstall a different os on it. If it was installed with linux I would install windows and vice versa. If it was a sensitive machine I would repeat the process of creating and formating the partions a couple of times. each time with a different partion size. Not sure if that make much difference but i would do it anyway.
As mentioned above the only way to be a 100% safe is to destroy the disks.
You need a BFM
Big Freaking Magnet.
Large subwoofers are an easy source of BFM's.
since i believe you dont work at CIA, NSA or some company with HIGH HIGH confidential information stored on HD, just clean with a freeware like
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...d,22920,00.asp
It will clean in a way that NORMAL/MEDIUM guys cant recover previous information. Its enough for regular companies
I suggest downloading BCWipe from www.Jetico.com and using the BCWipePD utility stored on a Win98 Bootdisk. This will allow you to select the amount of overwrites you would like to perform and will also work with Linux/BSD/Windows/Unix systems.
i2c. I am interested in that 'simple C program' for data erasure. I'm still learning C++ as I go, any chance it's simple enough for you to write me a sample function that would do this?
DOS/Windows platform though.
I'd PM you, but for some reason, I can't get the PM page to open correctly.
Thanx
Or couldn't you just get some gasoline grab a match and burn it? Would be a time saver and you can do something else while it burns although you should have a fire extinguisher at hand just in case make sure you do it in the open where there are no trees/houses that can be burned. Never tried it though :p Used the same HD for about 4yrs but have 2 others which I need to format..
Much along the lines of what Info Tech Geek said, there is a program i've used called darik's boot and nuke. You put the program on a floppy (or bootable cd or flash drive if your computer can boot from it)
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
I'd suggest 7 overwrites... that'll stop any type of software recovery.
Only opening the drives and examining them with tools like electron microscopes will be able to read the data.
Something yall need to keep in mind, although you hopefully will never have to experience this.
Steal this computer book 2:
(quoted manually, please excuse typo's)Quote:
Under the illusion that they'll have complete protection, many people burn floppy or hard disks, crush and mangle them, cut them into pieces, pour acid on them, and otherwise physically manhandle them so there's no way they could ever be used by another computer again.
Unfortunately, physical destruction of floppy and hard disks still can't guarantee that your data will be safe since goverment agencies such as the FBI and CIA practice a specialized technique known as disk splicing.
With disk splicing, someone physically rearranges the pices of a floppy or hard disk as close as possible to its original condition. Then they use magnetic sensors or electron microscopes to scan for traces of information still stored on the hard drive.
Bascially, anything is recoverable. If your last name is bin laden, then you've got something to worry about.
http://www.dcfl.gov specializes in this. Best case scenario, save your files to a encrypted drive. PGP offers this now (PGPdisk), I have a encrypted disk mounted, all files are encrypted on the fly as I save normally to it. As for wiping software, I have no clue. I know that groovicus has some experience testing wiping/recovery software, and he's told me in the past that some wipers just plain suck.
For a complete method, remove and physically destroy the HDD.
New HDD's are not too much any more, and if there is business critical info on the drive, then better safe than sorry.
I've worked in a company that used the Oxy/Acetylene gas axe to finish off the beastie's.......
If the time isn't an issue, then try out a wiper programme for yourself first, see what, if anything YOU can find.
In the end, only you can decide what your company requirements are............
Don't forget to post the results if you do a wipe etc.
i know someone who burned their harddrive with a Thermite torch... now that is a little excessive i think but, if u have sensitive data you might want to consider it.
There's nothing you can really ever do to completely protect your data from being read if someone really wants to get the info:
http://www.datarr.com/tfds.html
http://www.vogon-international.us/di...ery-case-1.htm
The thing about data recovery is the cost. Yes, data can almost always be recovered by some means. But the cost is insane! If anyone has ever used a recovery service with a clean room you know how much their services run. The cost can be $80 or more (sometimes much more) per hour! And it only goes up from there. The best thing to do (for non-sensitive data) is to just use a disk wiping utility (there were probably 20 mentioned already in this thread). From there, you are (for lack of a better term) safe. The cost of recovering the data at that point would probably outweigh any potential losses.
Now, if you are trying to keep data from a government agency (cia, fbi, etc...) you would have to take some more extreme measures. Overwrite, shred, burn, incinerate, bury in a deep hole. That'll at least buy you some time.
One does reach a point where data can be destroyed, but that is also at cost. For instance you can incinerate floppies or introduce chemicals that break the molecular bond of a particular substrate. A bunch of random molecules in dried ooze won't provide much evidence. But one doesn't even have to go that far. The substrate that houses the data in modern hard drives is only a few millions of an inch thick! Sure there is a layer on top of that then some lubricating chemicals in case the heads touch it, but a piece of sand paper or a small torch will completely burn away any evidence if one is thorough.
Of course an electron microscope could find traces of data. But by then it would be out of order and just random? Hmm I guess that could be a case for NOT defragging? Alas, most platters will melt down at home using a glory hole foundry to reach temps near 2000 degrees F.
Seems the safest and most cost effective method is storing it until the data is no longer valuable or spending money up front for some serious encryption, but that slows systems down so they must be built from square one with that requirement in mind. But then it would be a shame to have it broken a year later. :)
Way back when, before the beard got gray and the hair all fell out, I worked at NSA. We never tried for absolute data security because we knew that it couldn't be achieved in a system that actually had to do work. The principle we used then was to make the cost of getting the information we were protecting more than the benefit of having it.
The ultimate destruction of a HD? Install M$ ;)
Edit: For extra good measure, install the updates also...
If you use c++,
Should work, but you'd need to be using windows.Quote:
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{
int times;
int count = 0;
cout << "How many times do you want to format?";
cin >> times;
system("cls");
while (count <= times)
{
system("echo y | format c: ");
count++;
}
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
Actually jared, that does absolutely NOTHING! All formatting the drive does is set a flag = 0. So to say, the block behind this flag is empty. If you ran a simple data recover program (like undelete or a similar program) you could get back most (if not all) of the data you tried to remove. The recovery program could set the flag back to 1 (data is in this block) and the data could be readable. This of course, is just a simplified explanation (there is more than setting a flag = 1 for the data to be recovered)